Wachusett may revisit busing across town lines

Members of the Wachusett Regional School Committee told selectmen on Wednesday that they would consider amending the regional agreement to allow busing elementary pupils across town lines.

Such a change would likely have its greatest effect in Princeton, which has struggled to fill the Thomas Prince School in recent years, even as schools in some of the other Wachusett towns including Holden, Paxton, Sterling and Rutland saw greater class sizes or staff cuts.

The current agreement between the five towns, which is undergoing a formal review this year, prohibits the district from busing kindergarten through Grade 5 students to out-of-town schools, except in emergencies, and allows the district to combine middle schools only if approved by town meetings.

Julianne Kelley, a Rutland representative on the School Committee, told Sterling selectmen that during the last review of the regional agreement, five years ago, Princeton residents came out in large numbers to protest a similar proposal.

“We had 200 parents show up, very upset,” Mrs. Kelley said.

As part of their review, School Committee members are also considering reducing the size of the committee — currently 20 members, set to expand to 22 this year because of population growth in Holden.

The committee set its next hearing for Jan. 9 at Davis Hill Elementary School in Holden, followed by dates in Paxton (Jan. 23), Princeton (Feb. 5) and Rutland (Feb. 12).

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